Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner’s mercenary group, which is fighting in Ukraine on the side of Russia, called on the Moscow parliament to ban negative coverage of his people in the media by amending the Criminal Code, according to which “discrediting” militants will be punishable by up to five years in prison. prison, Reuters and News.ro report.

Evgeny Prigozhin wrote about this in a letter sent to the president of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin.

Prigozhin’s press service published the letter on Tuesday.

Volodin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, like Prigozhin, is already pushing for changes to the Criminal Code to allow authorities to confiscate the property and assets of Russians living abroad who publicly insult Russia and its armed forces.

Wagner’s mercenary boss, who has become increasingly visible since the start of the war in Ukraine, apparently in an effort to curry favor with Putin and boost his own prospects, has repeatedly called attention to the important role his fighters play in helping to conquer cities. and villages in Ukraine and often criticize the military leadership of Russia.

In a letter sent to Volodin, he accuses “individual media, bloggers and Telegram channels” of discrediting some of his people, especially convicts whom he personally recruited from prisons to serve on Wagner, presenting them as “bad guys and criminals.”

“Such practices must be strictly suppressed in order to strengthen our society in the face of Russia’s external threats,” he says.

Prigozhin clarified that it is necessary to prohibit publications of “a negative nature and any criticism of the participants of the special operation, as well as information about their past crimes.”

Some “Wagnerians”, convicted criminals, agreed to Prigozhin’s offer to fight in Ukraine for six months in exchange for a pardon, although they were initially imprisoned for life. The only condition for a pardon after serving on Wagner is to stay alive.

Prigozhin is now asking the parliament to criminalize any actions or publications that discredit such people, and to prohibit the public disclosure of their criminal past.

“In essence, people who are in the most dangerous areas of the front and daily risk their lives and die for the Motherland, are presented as second-class people, depriving them of the right to atone for their guilt before society and deliberately belittling them. their achievements,” Prigozhin complains in the letter.

Volodin has yet to respond to his request, but earlier on Tuesday Serhiy Mironov, the parliamentary leader of the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party, criticized two Russian regions that he said refuse to bury Wagner fighters killed in Ukraine. “These are unconscious decisions, you cannot judge what a person did in the past,” Mironov said. “Especially if a person died with a weapon in his hands, defending our Motherland!” – he added.

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